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Murali Karthikeyan is India's new National Champion! He began the tournament with a terrible 0.0/2 and then scaled up the peak with one win after another to end up with 8.5/13. He is the winner despite suffering three losses, including one in the final round today, while Vidit had to be content with the second spot on tiebreak despite losing only one game, to M. Karthikeyan himself. An illustrated report.
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India sent fifty young and talented kids to participate in the World Youth Championships 2015 in Greece. They returned with a massive tally of eleven medals – five gold, three silver and three bronze. This made it by far the most successful country at the event. We got in touch with these young kids and asked them many questions. The winners sent us annotated games, and we also have opinions of five-time World Champion Vishy Anand and the super coach GM R.B.Ramesh.
And Bloodbath it was, just as predicted! There are many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip. Vidit seemingly had it all under control, until he tripped against Murali Karthikeyan, losing and allowing the Tamil Nadu youngster to join him at the top. Today, he even lost his lead, and to think that M. Karthikeyan has reached here after being at the bottom of the table after the first couple of rounds -- his score read 0.0/2 -- one cannot help but wonder about his fighting abilities. An illustrated report.
Both the leaders drew their games in contrasting fashion -- M. Karthikeyan played solidly and could find nothing better than a repetition while Vidit barely scraped through after being an exchange down. The battle builds up as the players ready themselves for the penultimate round tomorrow. Be prepared for a bloodbath! The result of the day was Praneeth's sensational swindle against Venky, gifting the Telangana boy yet another grandmaster scalp! An illustrated report.
With 8.5/11 Padmini won the 42nd Ramratna National Women Premier 2015 by a full point. The defending champion played a superb tournament scoring seven consecutive wins to seal the title in her favour with a round to spare. Her last round loss to K.Priyanka was surprising but did little to affect the tournament standings. Soumya Swaminathan got the better of Swati Ghate to clinch the second spot and Bhakti Kulkarni finished third. We have a detailed report with analysis and some exclusive pictures sent to us by IM Nisha Mohota.
We had predicted the possibility of the tournament becoming a two-way race if Vidit was beaten by Murali Karhikeyan, and he succeeded! Will this result become the turning point in the tournament, a cruel twist in the fate of the leader? Only time can answer this question. In other notable games, Sethu breezed to an easy win, while Praneeth brought down yet another grandmaster -- this time an out of sorts Shyam Sundar, whose tournament has gone for a toss after a bad cold hit him hard. Neelotpal scored his second victory by beating Shyaamnikhil.
The ninth round witnessed only three results, and two of them have had a notable effect on the crosstable. Vidit won comfortably against the second-placed P. Karthikeyan, who was relegated to the third position because Murali Karthikeyan won his fifth game in this tournament. In the tenth round, he takes on the leader himself, and a win here would throw the tournament wide open. Otherwise, Vidit has all but sealed his victory. Arghyadip Das won against Swapnil as his sacrifice turned into a deficit in the endgame.
Round eight witnessed the highly awaited Sethu-Vidit clash, which lived up to its top billing in the complexity and the excitement it generated. Deep Sengupta won his first game of the tournament by defeating Shyam Sundar while M.R. Venkatesh took down Swapnil. Kunte managed to win with a sweet little tactic after Arghyadip blundered. M. Karthikeyan wiped out Rathnakaran on the kingside while P. Karthikeyan put it across Shyaamnikhil.
The seventh round could produce only one result -- Vidit beat Arghyadip to take a comfortable one point lead over the second-placed P. Karthikeyan, who drew a very strange game against Rathnakaran. Amidst all these draws, Praneeth Surya scored the first IM-norm of his fledgling career as he was held by Murali Karthikeyan, who at one point had a worse position.
The city of Patna, the capital of Bihar, hosted the 24th edition of the National U-25 Championship. This tournament was the final age-category National event of the year 2015 and managed to attract sixty-three players. Newly minted IM Krishna Teja N. of Andhra Pradesh won the tournament with 8.5/9. We have pictures, analysis and choice tactics for you.
There were three wins and four draws in the sixth round, but let these results not fool you! Sethu invested a humongous amount of time in the early middlegame, only to gift Rathna the point in a platter. P. Karthikeyan won against Praneeth while Kunte allowed Venkatesh his first victory in this tournament. Neelotpal had a better position against Deep Sengupta -- so much better that he was sedated into a textbook draw.
The biggest news of the fifth round was Praneeth's victory over the defending champion Sethu. Vidit defeated his former coach and mentor Kunte in a positionally elegant manner while an unfit Shyam Sundar put it across P. Karthikeyan with hardly any problems. Deep Sengupta's woes continued as he lost yet again, this time to M. Karthikeyan who seems hell-bent on winning every game after a forgettable start. After the kind of starts they had to this tournament, both Venkatesh and Rathnakaran can't complain much about their results, as they drew with Neelotpal and Arghyadip respectively. Swapnil, meanwhile, won an instructive endgame.
Soumya Swaminathan leads the National Women Premier after six rounds with a score of 5.0/6. She is followed closely by Swati Ghate and Padmini Rout who are on 4.5/6 and Pratyusha Bodda on four points. Especially worrying is the form of Tania Sachdev who is only on 2.0/6. The participants recieved a fine boost as the Governor of Bengal visited the venue. With five rounds to go this is shaping up to be an exciting contest. We have some nice pictures as well as analysis from the event.
The fourth round saw four decisive games, and White won all of them. Rathnakaran fell to the same line that had destroyed him in the second round. Praneeth’s Najdorf could not suppress Arghyadip’s queenside onslaught. Sethu played a fine game and converted easily after Shyam Sundar missed his chance to equalize. Kunte and Shyaamnikhil settled for a quick draw, while P. Karthikeyan won a pawn, but could not break through Deep’s defenses. Venkatesh finally had reasons to smile, after he held an unfit Vidit to a draw. The game of the day was played by India's bright hope Murali Karthikeyan.
Four decisive games meant that it was a fighting Tuesday here at Thiruvarur. Kunte and M. Karthikeyan managed to open their accounts, the latter at the expense of an extremely consistent Venkatesh who remains at a sorry 0/3. To both Vidit and P. Karthikeyan's dismay, they were held to draws. Deep and Rathnakaran lost their second consecutive games, the former tragically from a won position. Praneeth caused yet another upset when he took down Dhopade while Shyam Sundar and Arghyadip played out an entertaining draw. The tournament was also graced by a hero of yesteryears: the Evans Gambit!
